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Who's Who - Sir Frederick Sturdee

Sir Frederick Charles Doveton Sturdee
(1859-1925) was one of the First World War's lucky naval commanders.
Despite an early setback at the start of the war that might easily have
brought an early end to his war career, he was afforded a second chance
that, by great fortune, worked to his advantage.

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Born into a naval family at
Kent on 9 June 1859 the eldest son of Captain Frederick Sturdee, Frederick
Sturdee was educated at the Royal Naval School at New Cross before entering
the Britannia as a cadet at the age of 12 in July 1871.

Two years later he passed
out as a midshipman where he served until 1878 in the Channel squadron on
the East Indies station. That same year he was promoted Sub-Lieutenant
in June, upon which he served two years in Portsmouth learning gunnery
techniques on board the Excellent.

Promoted full lieutenant in
May 1880, Sturdee spent much of 1881 and 1882 in the Mediterranean where he
took part in operations at Alexandria in 1882, for which he received the
Gold medal and Bronze star.

By now excelling in the
field of gunnery, Sturdee devoted the following three years, until December
1885, to the Vernon torpedo school, establishing himself as a noted torpedo
officer.

After a three and a half
year stint as torpedo lieutenant on the Bellerophon on the North American
and West Indies station, he spent the years from 1889-93 back at the Vernon
torpedo school, where he served on the staff, working mostly with torpedo
boats.

Promoted Commander in June
1893 Sturdee served at the Admiralty in London until 1897 in the ordnance
department as a torpedo specialist.

In late 1897 he took
command of the Porpoise on the Australian station, thereafter
assuming command of the Samoan force in the summer of 1899 during the
German-U.S. dispute. He was subsequently awarded the CMG for his
handling of the Samoan situation and received a promotion to Captain.

Back at the Admiralty,
Sturdee this time took up a position as Assistant Director of Naval
Intelligence, a role he held until until late 1902, when he resumed active
service in home waters until he was appointed Lord Charles Beresford's Chief
of Staff (Beresford was the Commander in Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet).

After receiving a CVO in
1906 Sturdee returned to the Channel Fleet the following year, commanding
HMS New Zealand, his last command before his promotion to flag rank.

In 1910 Sturdee was given
charge of the First Battle Squadron, which he commanded for the next year.
In 1911 he chaired the Admiralty submarine committee before, in 1912, being
given command of cruiser squadrons as the Senior Cruiser Admiral in the home
fleet.

1913 was a successful year
for Sturdee. In June he was created KCB and in December promoted to
Vice-Admiral. The following July, in 1914, Sturdee was appointed Chief
of the War Staff, reporting to the then First Sea Lord
Prince Louis of
Battenberg.

Widely regarded as
ill-suited to his new role, Sturdee's tenure was short-lived. With war
underway the early humiliating setback at
Coronel
on 1 November (inflicted by
Admiral von Spee) brought about Sturdee's replacement.

October 1914 saw the return
of Admiral Fisher as First Sea Lord in the wake of Battenberg's resignation
(chiefly owing to his German heritage and hounded out by the press). Fisher's sweeping
naval reforms had been opposed by Sturdee prior to the war, and Fisher was
known to harbour no great opinion of Sturdee's abilities. Sturdee's
naval career appeared at an end.

However in the aftermath of
Coronel Sturdee was
thrown a life-line by Fisher. He was handed command of a powerful
task-force sent to find and destroy von Spee's commerce raiding squadron.
Sturdee's squadron included two modern, fast battle cruisers Inflexible
and Invincible in addition to five other cruisers.

Sturdee's pursuit of Spee
was somewhat ineffectual and lacked energy. Having docked at the
Falkland Islands in early December his squadron was re-coaling when von
Spee's squadron itself appeared at the Falklands, there on a mission to
bombard the islands.

Missing the golden
opportunity of striking at the British force while still in port, Spee
rapidly came to the conclusion that he was outnumbered and overpowered, and
chose to flee. However Sturdee's force had the legs of Spee's squadron
and quickly
brought the two fleets to action on 8 December 1914.

Sturdee destroyed all but
one of Spee's ships: Spee himself went down with his flagship, Scharnhorst.
Sturdee's force suffered just five fatalities and sixteen more wounded; the
Germans lost some 2,000 men drowned.

The scale of Sturdee's
victory, fortunate though it was (and effectively handed to him on a plate),
restored public confidence in the Royal Navy at home in Britain.
Sturdee was awarded a Baronetcy in January 1916 in recognition of his
success.

More importantly the demolition of Spee's force severely
dented German faith in the ability of their naval forces to meet with the British
on equal terms; consequently, with the notable exception of Jutland,
large-scale actions were avoided by both sides for the remainder of the war,
although Germany was seen as having come off the worse of the two.

In February 1915 Sturdee
took command of the Fourth Battle Squadron with the
Grand Fleet, which he
led at the
Battle of Jutland in June 1916 under the overall command of
Sir John Jellicoe.
Considered a strategic if not a tactical British victory, Jutland
disappointed public and politicians alike at home. Sturdee was
thereafter a
prominent critic of Jellicoe's conduct of the battle.

With Jellicoe's promotion
to First Sea Lord in December 1916, his place as commander of the Grand
Fleet was expected to go to Sturdee; indeed he was
King George V's own
nominee. Nevertheless Sturdee was overlooked and the appointment went
to Beatty instead. Sturdee received no further wartime notable
advancement.

Made Admiral in May 1917
Sturdee continued with the Fourth Battle Squadron until the following February when
he was appointed Commander in Chief at the Nore, a position he maintained
until 1921 when he was promoted Admiral of the Fleet and made GCB.

Following the war Sturdee
succeeded Battenberg as President of the Society of Nautical Research and
led the effort to restore Nelson's old flagship, Victory.

Sir Frederick Sturdee died
at home in Camberley, Surrey, on 7 May 1925 at the age of 65.